Fixtures for attaching women&#39;s heels to shoes



Sept. 11, 1962 M. J. HOFFARTH 3,052,902

FIXTURES FOR ATTACHING WOMENS HEELS TO SHOES Filed Aug. 1, 1961 IN V EN TOR. mama .ZHOFFARTH l /9 BY Q ATTORNfY Patented Sept. 11, 1952 '9 tithe 3,052,902 FIXTURES FOR ATTAUHIN G WOMENS HEELS T SHOES Michael J. Hofiarth, 130 E. 154th St., Harvey, Ill. Filed Aug. 1, 1961, Ser. No. 128,578 3 Claims. (Cl. 12123.3)

This invention relates to heel attaching fixtures and more particularly to ladies shoe heel holders to enable the more effective attachment and replacement of ladies shoe heels which are now of metal or plastic or both and present difficulty in attachment or replacement.

It contemplates more especially the provision of a heel holder fixture which will receive and adequately support more or less delicate heels for ladies shoes without manning the finish or exterior cover thereof, and enable the effective attachment to the shoe by resort to screws or special screw nails which will hold in plastic and similarly dense material.

The delicate shapes and designs of ladies high heels for their dress shoes which are currently used for street wear too, have caused a transition in the use of materials from leather and wood to metal or plastic or a combination of these materials. The heels so constructed, designed and fabricated are provided with a thin and delicate exterior cover to match the material of the shoe, and this covering skin is very delicate and sensitive to abrasion and scarring so that extreme care must be exercised in the application or re-application of replacement heels to the shoes. Then, too, the hard and dense materials constituting the body of the current heels make it difficult to fasten the heels and require rigid support for effective attachment without abrasion and scarring of the heel skin or cover.

With the teachings of the present invention, a holder is provided with a socket having a comparatively soft and yieldable interior liner socket that accommodates most, if not all, of the varying shapes of ladies heels for support without marring the exterior skin thereof during the attachment. The yieldable socket support liner may be of soft material that yields to deformation without scratching, marring or scarring even under tremendous impact occasioned by the penetration of the screw nailsun'der heavy hammer blows in order to become lodged in the dense material from which the heel body is molded or otherwise shaped. The material most currently used for the formation of heel bodies for Womens shoes is plastic that requires unusually heavy and forceful hammer blows in order to cause the fasteners such as screw nails to enter and become more or less permanently lodged into the mass thereof.

One object of the present invention is to provide an improved ladies heel holder fixture that adequately supports various shapes and heel designs without scratching, marring or scarring the exterior skin or cover thereof.

Another object is to provide a heel holder support with a socket lined with a relatively soft and yieldable material preferably of one-piece unitary formation that receives and supports variously shaped ladies high heels without marring, scratching or abrading the rather delicate covering skin thereof.

Still another object is to provide a heel holder with a comparatively soft and yieldable plastic interior liner to adapt itself to varying shapes of ladies heels for the adequate support thereof in a shoemakers or shoe repairers jack for enabling the effective attachment of the heels to the shoes for which intended.

A further object is to provide a heel holder fixture for attachment to a shoemakers jack and fitting the socket thereof with a one-piece liner of comparatively soft and yieldable plastic material that is smooth, tough, resists 23 abrasion and yet sufliciently yieldable to permit some measure of deformation to accommodate differently sized and shaped heels for support during the attachment thereof to shoes for which the heels are intended.

A still further object is to provide a metal heel holder with a socket lined with a comparatively soft and durable plastic such as eurethane which affords a smooth, soft, and yieldable support for variously sized and shaped heels without marring the exterior covering skin thereof.

Other objects of the invention will appear from the following description of an illustrated embodiment of the present invention or a preferred form thereof.

In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a fixture serving as a heel holder in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.

FIGURE 2 is a side view in elevation of the heel holder fixture shown in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of a soft and yieldable heel holder socket liner of one-piece construction and preferably of smooth plastic such as eurethane or the like.

FIGURE 4 is a side view in elevation of a heel holder modified to fit onto the Landis shoemakers jack, the jack portion into which the heel holder fits is shown in section to clarify the showing.

The structure selected for illustration is not intended to serve as a limitation upon the scope or teachings of the invention, but is merely illustrative thereof and teaches a simple method of effectively supporting ladies delicate heels during the application thereof to the shoes without marring or abrading the exterior skin or cover thereof. There may be considerable variations and adaptations of all or part of the teachings depending upon the dict-ates of commercial practice.

The present invention comprises a preformed fixture 10 preformed of any suitable material such as but not limited to aluminum cast to the desired shape to define a rigid and durable body having a smoothly curved upper periphery 11 that, in this instance, merges into a reduced shank portion 12. The shank portion 12 extends into an outwardly flaring mid-portion 13-14 comprising in this embodiment the back and front, respectively, of the fixture 16. The sides of the fixture 19 are substantially straight in the vertical confines thereof as an integral part of the back portion 13 and the bulged front portion 14 to accommodate the chambered interior 15 thereof which has a forwardly extending offset 16 to enable the ladies rather long heels 1?" to be inserted by tilting during the initial positioning thereof through the orifice 17 provided in the upper end defined by the curved periphery 11. V

The lower end 18 of the fixture body 10 is provided with a rectangular opening 19 that is a complement for the male end of the presently used shoemakers jack (not shown) of Well known form and construction. It should be Observed that the chambered interior 15 of the fixture body or heel holder 16, communicates with the heel entrant orifice 17 and the bottom opening 19 which telescopes onto the male end of the shoemakers jack. The chambered interior 15 with its entrant orifice 17 and jack receiving opening 19, are sufficiently long in linear extent to accommodate the longest possible heel 17 of which some are rather sharply slanted toward the front so that the front portion 16 of the fixture or heel holder interior is offset to provide the necessary clearance for such type of heels as well as afford a tilted entry should such be necessary for the extreme designs of heels.

It should be noted that the entrant orifice 17 is smoothly curved to provide an upwardly and outwardly flaring portion with an oval rearward configuration (FIGURE a 1) and an abruptly straight front edge '20 which diminishes downwardly to define a substantially similar but smaller outline at the neck or shank portion interior 21. This shape conforms with the upper portion of most every type of womens heels of the long and rather thin shank-type characterized as a dress or non-walking type of heel. Such heels will rest in the upper orifice 11 and neck portion 21 of the fixture 10, but even smooth metal such as aluminum from which the fixture body is molded or otherwise shaped will abrade and mar the finish of the heel skin or cover usually of the same leather that the shoe is fabricated from to conform in color and appearance.

To avoid the marring or abrading of the heel cover or skin, the upper entrant orifice 11-15-17 is provided with a complementally shaped and somewhat smaller sized heel cup liner 23 (FIGURE 3) molded, fabricated or otherwise shaped to comprise a smooth, comparatively soft and flexible cup member liner which is shaped to fit and serve as a complement of the upper entrant orifice 111517. The plastic known as eurethane has been found most useful for this purpose in that it yields under heavy impact or load without any apparent permanent deformation thereof and protects the heel skin or cover against marring, scratching or scarring while amply supporting same in the fixture or holder 10 while the shoe is held in the correct inverted position thereabove for application to the heel by utilizing special nails having ridges thereon for impact hammering into the heel base through the shoe. This requires a rather heavy and sturdy hammer with appreciable impact to penetrate thehand plastic with which the heels are usually shaped and made in present production operations.

The comparatively soft socket liner 23 is preferably positioned in the entrant orifice 1115-17 or heel socket after an effective adhesive is applied to avoid accidental removal or displacement. In the modified embodiment illustrated in FIGURE 4, like parts are identified by the same numerals primed to distinguish them from the preferred embodiment described supra; however, the fixture or heel holder 10 has its base 18' provided with a rectangular opening 19 to receive a ribbed depending stub 24' fixed thereto in any appropriate man ner to terminate downwardly in a male spindle end 25' that is a complement to the Landis type of shoemakers jack 26' which formerly had a receptacle 27 therein to accommodate male spindles 25. Because many of these are still in use, this modification and adaptation is thought desirable and the teachings of the present invention shown utiliz'able therewith as well as with the current type of shoemakers jack that is usually mounted to a low bench or directly to the floor.

It is preferable though not essential that the heel supporting liner 23 be of sufficient thickness to afford slight deformation to accommodate the varying shapes and designs of womens heels 17? for support by substantially the entire surface area thereof, but such must be sufiiciently firm to provide adequate support for the heels 17 while being fastened to the shoe applied thereagainst in inverted position for impact fastener penetration through the interior thereof. The support linear or cushion 23 should preferably be one-piece or integral molded construction to exactly fit into the entrant orifice or heel supporting socket 17 so that with a thin film of suitable adhesive therebetween, the liner or cushion 23 will be fully supported by the cast metal fixture or heel holder 10 or 10'. Furthermore, the liner or cushion 23 should be of dense material such as a plastic having some small measure of yield and flexibility to conform to slightly different sizes, lengths, and shapes of heels 17 which will be accommodated therein and under impact and constant contact therewith will not become rough or irregular in surface characteristics.

Such a fixture or heel holder 10 or 10 will enable the speedy and effective attachment of even the most difficult shapes and types of womens heels 17 that vary considerably and yet can be adequately supported in a single universal type of socket 17 having a suitable and correspondingly sized and shaped liner or cushion 23 which is of utmost importance. The otherwise diflicult task of attaching plastic hard Womens heels is made comparatively easy with a fixture 10 of the type described without marring or scarring the rather delicate covers or skins thereon which conform to the shoes to which they are designed for attachment.

While I have illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of the invention, it must be understood that the invention is capable of considerable variation and modification withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention. I, therefore, do not wish to be limited to the precise details of construction set forth, but desire to avail myself of such variations and modifications as come Within the scope of the appended claims. 2

I claim:

1. A holder for womens heels and the like to afford the ready attachment thereof with fasteners to shoes, comprising a preformed body of non-yielding material having a cavity lengthwise thereof to receive and fully support the heel base portion of a ladies shoe, there being a chamber communicating with said cavity to accommm date heels of different lengths and cross-sectional dimensions, a firm smooth yieldable seamless preformed cushion in and complemental in shape to said cavity to conform with the general configuration of the base portion of most types of womens heels, said cushion being sufiiciently firm to support womens heels under impact for effecting fastener penetration into the hard dense material of which the heels are formed, there being a cavity in said cushion to communicate with the chamber and cavity of said preformed body, and means on said fixture to afiord attachment thereof to a shoem-akers jack for support of said fixture in an upright position.

2. A holder for womens heels defined in claim 1 wherein the cushion for the fixture cavity is an integral replaceable liner complemental to the cavity in said preformed body to support a heel to withstand heavy impact without marring the cover or skin of the heel or heels.

3. A holder for womens heels defined in claim 2 wherein the cushion is a one-piece molded yieldable plastic liner, and an adhesive between the liner and said holder cavity to provide proper support and some deformation to protect the exterior finish of the heel or heels.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,290,460 Winders et a1. Jan. 7, 1919 1,827,058 Wolf Oct; 13, 1931 2,049,686 Calabress Aug. 4, 1936 FOREIGN PATENTS 197,277 Great Britain -a May 10, 1923 

